Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I cannot understand why these are not more popular in the hobby as they are such beautiful and active snakes with wonderful personalities.

Dan

Hi,

Absolutely beautiful shovelnose! Feisty little serpents, right? Any interesting observations?
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DAVE

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"And tons of garters and ribbons are being born in the reptile room this very minute..."

theyre beautiful.Are they found in N.C.???

I am interested in these as I live in the SW (Nevada) but I have never attempted to keep any before. Have you had any long term success with them? If so what husbandry methods do you employ?
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Randy Hallman

A ten gallon, sand for substrate, some rocks, hide spot, small water bowl filled every other week, temps ranging from 75-82. They are offered crickets every week. They are actually on the surface for quite some time during all hours.

Do you heat tank from above or UTH or thats just the temp of the room you keep them in and what do you feed it I imagine crickets,wax worms,etc?
Thanks

They have a tube light overhead to increase the temp a bit during the day and they eat small crickets with gusto.

Dan

When you say they you keep a few together? No problems?
Thanks for the info

Well I keep a few together of the same size. I have a couple small ones I would not put in with the larger ones just for the sake to avoid a potential problem but like most snakes, they need their own space most of the time.

Dan

Thanks for the great info . I have a friend that is going to send me 2 same size . Hopefully M/F

What subspecies / species do you have?

I've got a Mojave that I've had for a little over a month now and I rarely see him on the surface. He's eating his crickets, but doesn't seem too interested in mealworms or wax worms; the first wax worms I put in did disappear, but then I guess the novelty wore off. Do you dust your crickets with calcium / multivitamin (if you do, what supplements do you use)? So far, I've only offered mine undusted. But now that he's more established I'm going to offer some dusted.

What kind of captive longevity have you had?

-Alice

I had not dusted them in the past but now that I you mention it I should dust them from time to time as those commercial crickets do not have the proper minerals. Thanks

Dan

You always have the most outstanding and unusual snakes -- south American coral snakes, shovel nosed snakes. Where do you get them?

Shovel nose snakes you can find at reptile shows and classified dealers. I saw 3 outtsanding colorful ones 2 yrs ago and REGRET to this day not getting them.
I dont know where my head was at that day. I think I was looking at the bigger Kings but they certainly are a sight to behold all that color in a small neat snake.
The one he has is great looking little gem.

I get them from friends in the hobby, importers, and reptile stores that are located in South Florida.

Dan

....Ive kept a handful or 2 of them & they are wonderful...I regret also having to use em as .....feeders!....
If you net moths by your porch lite or put little scorpions in w/ em....you'll really see some neat acrobatics & an arthropod specialist in action!
Funny tho...our banded sandsnakes are a much tougher captive proposition...????

I never thought about moths, I'll have to try those with mine. What else have you gotten them to eat? So far mine has taken crickets, camel crickets, wolf spiders, and waxworms (occaisionally). I've offered mealworms, but they're always refused.

I take it you've tried keeping the banded sand snakes with no luck?

-Alice

but they definately prefer crickets. I just wait a couple till all the crickets are gone and then throw some mealworms in. THey just need to get a little hungry. If both items are offered at the same time thye will always choose the crickets. I do believe it is good to vary the diet to ensure proper nutrition. I found that Sonora don't do very well long term on just a cricket diet. But throw in a couple mealies or waxworms and they do great.

That is good to know. I thought the nutrition from a cricket was not sufficient and something else might beef up the quality of what I was feeding them, so I will try meanworms and waxworms. I had some saw scale vipers that would not touch a lizard but I threw in a cricket and superworm and they went after them and ate them. So insects work for a lot besides just the usual insect eater. I started to scent pinks with crickets and wamo, the problem was solved. I bet you can scent a day old pink with a cricket and a shovel-nosed snake will eat it.

Dan

I let my guy go almost a week without crickets and the mealworms went untouched. How long do you typically let yours go?

Have you found it necessary to use any type of calcium / vitamin supplement? If so, do you have a recommended brand?

My guy is eating around a dozen crickets a week, is this typical food intake or should he be eating more? I haven't measured him, but he looks to be around 10".

What kind of captive longevity have you observed with these guys?

-Alice

I put in enough crickets to last a few days and then go about a week also. I do not dust the crickets but will start. I have kept one specimen for 4 years so far.

Dan

just a few days without crickets. I don't do any supplementing/dusting as I figure that varying teh diet should be adequate (I also throw in occassional frozen thawed centipedes and scorps, moths etc.)

Although I have found many Chionactis over the years the pair of klauberi I have now are the first I ever bothered to keep. I have had them less than a year. Kind off odd being as they are such awesome little snakes and I have always had a facsination for Ground and Sand Snakes. I think Shovel-Nose snakes have much more personality and make overall better captives then the other two. I have had Ground snakes for over ten years. I kept (and even bred) Banded-Sand snakes when I was a kid for seven years. I don't know what the actual longevity would have been as life got busy after I graduated High School and I released them back to where I found them under the Palo-Verdes in the back yard.

Maybe the Mojaves (Chionactic occipitalis occipitalis) just aren't big on mealworms. I do try to drop in any "tasty looking" inverts I come across, and these usually disappear quickly. Crickets, however, remain the staple. I did powder the last two batches of crickets I offered mine with a mix of rep-cal & herptivite. They didn't take any longer to disappear than the unpowdered, so I plan to start doing this regularly.

-Alice

and I agree, they are definately worth whatever time and trouble it takes to keep them healthy and thriving!

not that they don't eat. It's that their mouth is so small most have trouble with many of the items offered. I keep an adult now and have no problem at all with him. He accepts mealworms quite readily and very small crickets also.

real cool. I'll have to keep a lookout for those. I was under the impression that they were difficult captives.
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Justin